Personal and Social Development of Young People

Project Status: Completed

YALP was contracted by the Connexions Service to find out what young people and those adults who work with them understand personal and social development to be, identify examples of personal and social development opportunities that work for young people, and consider how they can best be applied within the context of Connexions. A number of Connexions Partnerships as well as groups of young people contributed to that research which has now been published by the DfES. A research brief is available from DfES publications (free of charge) and a copy of the full report at a cost of £4.95 (Reference RB480).  An electronic version of the full report can be downloaded using the link below or from the DfES website (www.dfes.gov.uk/research).

As part of this research two web forums were established, the contributions from which informed the final report. We remain interested in your views on personal and social development in addition to any comments you might have on the published report. These responses will be used to inform and influence the continuation of this work within Connexions.

The Connexions Partnerships personal development role is summarised in “A vision for 2006”which states that Connexions offers a wide range of help including access to personal and social development, further expanded in the Business Planning Guidance. It talks about the personal development role as making available a wide range of help including access to personal and social development. It also emphasises that this is a shared responsibility across the whole partnership and it has to encompass in particular the Youth Service and voluntary sector.

CSNU have used the research report to draw up a plan based around developing understanding of personal development and the Connexions role, the provision of practical help to Partnerships and PAs and ensuring a continuing focus of this area through monitoring, reporting and evaluation. Further work on this will take place over the next twelve months.

To steer the initial research and to oversee the subsequent work the CSNU have set up an advisory group. Membership of that group includes representatives from other DfES policy teams (to ensure links with related policy developments), the voluntary sector, Government Offices, the Youth Service and Connexions Partnerships (Tees Valley and Hereford and Worcestershire) For further information on this area of work please contact Chris Hutchings, Participation and Volunteering Team, Moorfoot, Sheffield S1 4PQ Telephone 0114 259 3756 email chrishutchings@dfes.gsi.gov.uk

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